Earnings call transcript: Alliant Energy Q3 2025 misses forecasts, shares rise

Alliant Energy Corp (NASDAQ:LNT) reported its third-quarter 2025 earnings, revealing a miss on both earnings per share (EPS) and revenue forecasts. The company posted an EPS of $1.09, falling short of the anticipated $1.18, and reported revenue of 1.21 billion dollars against the expected 1.32 billion dollars. Despite these misses, the company's stock rose by 1.51% to close at $66.94, indicating positive investor sentiment.

Key Takeaways

• Alliant Energy's Q3 2025 EPS and revenue fell short of forecasts.
• Stock price increased by 1.51% despite the earnings miss.
• The company revised its 2025 earnings guidance to $3.17-$3.23 per share.
• Alliant Energy initiated 2026 earnings guidance with a 6.6% increase.
• Significant investments in energy storage and data center expansions were highlighted.

Company Performance

Alliant Energy's performance in Q3 2025 was marked by a shortfall in meeting financial expectations, yet the company demonstrated resilience with a positive market reaction. The ongoing earnings reached $1.12 per share, and the company has realized over 80% of its 2025 earnings guidance midpoint. Alliant Energy continues to focus on strategic investments in energy storage and data center capacity, which are expected to drive future growth.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: 1.21 billion dollars, below the forecast of 1.32 billion dollars.
• Earnings per share: $1.09, compared to the forecast of $1.18.
• 2025 earnings guidance narrowed to $3.17-$3.23 per share.
• Initiated 2026 earnings guidance at $3.36-$3.46 per share.

Earnings vs. Forecast

Alliant Energy reported an EPS of $1.09, missing the forecasted $1.18 by 7.63%. Revenue came in at 1.21 billion dollars, 8.33% below the anticipated 1.32 billion dollars. This represents a significant deviation from expectations, although the market's positive reaction suggests investor confidence in the company's strategic direction.

Market Reaction

Despite the earnings miss, Alliant Energy's stock rose by 1.51% to $66.94. This increase positions the stock near its 52-week high of $69.75, reflecting optimism in the company's future growth prospects, particularly in energy storage and data center expansions.

Outlook & Guidance

Alliant Energy has narrowed its 2025 earnings guidance to a range of $3.17-$3.23 per share and initiated 2026 guidance with an expected 6.6% increase to $3.36-$3.46 per share. The company plans to target a 7-8% earnings growth from 2027 to 2029, driven by strategic investments and data center load growth.

Executive Commentary

CEO Lisa Barton emphasized the company's strategic focus: "Unlocking the potential of our customers and communities is at the center of our strategy." CFO Robert Durian highlighted growth opportunities, stating, "We have significant growth opportunities."

Risks and Challenges

• Potential for continued earnings misses could affect investor confidence.
• Regulatory changes in Iowa and Wisconsin could impact earnings certainty.
• Execution risks associated with large capital expenditure plans.
• Dependence on data center demand growth for future revenue increases.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the potential for load growth above 8% with additional data center contracts. Executives confirmed high confidence in a 2-4 gigawatt pipeline and discussed Google's accelerated load ramp in Cedar Rapids, highlighting strategic opportunities in the data center market.

Full transcript - Alliant Energy Corp (LNT) Q3 2025:

Conference Operator: Thank you for holding, and welcome to Alliant Energy's Third Quarter 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all lines are in listen-only mode. Today's conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Susan Gille, Investor Relations Manager at Alliant Energy. Please go ahead.

Susan Gille, Investor Relations Manager, Alliant Energy: Good morning. I would like to thank all of you on the call and the webcast for joining us today. We appreciate your participation. With me here today are Lisa Barton, President and CEO, and Robert Durian, Executive Vice President and CFO. Following prepared remarks by Lisa and Robert, we will have time to take questions from the investment community. We issued a news release last night announcing Alliant Energy's third quarter and year-to-date financial results. We narrowed our 2025 earnings guidance range, provided 2026 earnings and dividend guidance, and provided our updated capital expenditure and financing plans through 2029. This release, as well as the earnings presentation, will be referenced during today's call and are available on the investor page of our website at www.alliantenergy.com.

Before we begin, I need to remind you that the remarks we make on this call and our answers to your questions include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks that could cause actual results to be materially different. Those risks include, among others, matters discussed in Alliant Energy's news release issued last night and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. In addition, this presentation contains references to ongoing earnings per share, which is a non-GAAP financial measure. References to ongoing earnings include material charges or income that are not normally associated with ongoing operations. The reconciliation between ongoing and GAAP measures is provided in the earnings release, which is available on our website. At this point, I'll turn the call over to Lisa.

Lisa Barton, President and CEO, Alliant Energy: Thank you, Sue. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our third quarter earnings call. Today, we're pleased to share our Q3 and year-to-date results, another quarter and year where we delivered solid financial and operational performance. We will also share the outlook for the remainder of this year, update you on our strategic initiatives, including our capital expenditures, financing plans through 2029, and discuss how we're positioned to accelerate and extend our earnings expectations. We are well-positioned because of the Alliant Energy advantage in the realization of additional near-term load growth opportunities from data centers. We are continuing our consistent track record of execution and financial performance. Our performance is driven by our customer-focused investments and supportive regulatory environments, a winning strategy for driving continued growth while prioritizing affordability and reliable service. Our focus on customers and building stronger communities is at the heart of everything we do.

With our compelling large load opportunities and diverse capital investment plans, we are well-positioned to continue meeting customer, community, and investor expectations. We will cover each of these advantages today, as shown on slide three, as they power Alliant's future. To start, I am pleased to share updates for the quarter. Our projected peak demand growth by 2030 has increased to an industry-leading 50% through the execution of a fourth electric service agreement with QTS Madison. We signed a new agreement with Google that further accelerates the load ramp in Cedar Rapids, and we continue to cultivate an active pipeline of additional opportunities. Our focus has been on prioritizing plug-and-ready sites, which minimize transmission investments and accelerate our ability to serve new customers. As a result, we can deliver project certainty, near-term earnings, and near-term positive community and customer benefits. Concurrently, we continue to execute well against our capital plans.

We completed construction of the Grant and Wood County energy storage projects totaling 175 megawatts and completed the Nina and Sheboygan Falls Unit One advanced gas path projects, which increases the efficiency and capability of each of these Wisconsin facilities. These low-growth opportunities and continued investments in our existing generation show how we're continuing to efficiently grow at the pace of our customers to foster economic developments across our service territory. Next, our financial highlights. We delivered strong performance through the first three quarters. We are maintaining our midpoint and narrowing our 2025 ongoing earnings guidance range to $3.17-$3.23 per share, as shown on slide five, and we are trending towards the upper half of this range. As shown on slide six, we are initiating 2026 earnings guidance of $3.36-$3.46 per share, which represents a 6.6% increase over our 2025 midpoint.

Our 2026 annual common stock dividend target is $2.14 per share, a 5.4% increase from the 2025 target of $2.03 per share. We are increasing our four-year capital expenditure plan by 17% to $13.4 billion. This translates to a projected rate base and investment compound annual growth rate of 12% from 2025 to 2029. We expect our compound annual growth rate across 2027 to 2029 to be 7% plus. This is based on the planned growth in rate base and the expected data center revenues during that period. We will continue to assess our long-term earnings growth potential as we execute on our data center expansion and load growth plans. As shown on slide nine, construction is well underway on three of the four data centers under agreement, two in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and one in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.

This progress clearly demonstrates that we are focused on meaningful near-term opportunities, each of which serves to unlock the potential of our customers and communities. The contracted demand from the four facilities totals 3 gigawatts, translating to 50% peak demand growth by 2030. Accordingly, we've updated our four-year capital plan and will invest $9 billion in both new and existing generation, complementing investments we are making in electric, gas, and technology enhancements. Looking beyond the plan, we have a solid outlook of investment opportunities that extend our growth potential. Investment upside would be driven by additional load growth beyond what is included in the base plan. We are focused on enabling real near-term growth, attracting high-impact projects to accelerate economic development as part of our commitment to Iowa and Wisconsin, and providing investors with a clear view of well-developed opportunities.

As we continue to expand our pipeline, we remain committed to proactive community and stakeholder engagement, positioning Alliant Energy and the communities we serve for growth. Advancing win-win outcomes that maintain affordable service for customers and communities ensures Alliant continues to deliver value while unlocking the potential of our customers and communities. To share a few examples of win-win outcomes, first, the Iowa retail construct stabilizes electric-based rates for customers through the end of the decade, serving as a perfect example of a win for our existing customers through stable rates. Second, we executed an agreement to enable fiber connectivity to one of our data center customers by leasing our underground conduit in our service territories, which provides substantial financial benefits to our existing customers.

Third, last week, QTS advanced its Wisconsin data center plans with meaningful community contributions, full funding of all infrastructure, and the purchase of renewable energy credits from new projects, reducing costs and creating value for all WPL customers. Support from our regulators has been key to moving our plans forward. The Iowa Utilities Commission approved the individual customer rates for our two data centers currently under construction in Cedar Rapids. Through these filings, we've demonstrated that our approach effectively protects existing customers while allowing them to benefit from additional growth. Yesterday, the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin approved our unanimous retail electric and gas rate review settlement for forward test periods 2026 and 2027. This rate review cost-effectively advances responsible energy solutions, strengthens the safety and resilience of our energy network, and expands options available to customers.

Our strategy is rooted in being a trusted partner in delivering outcomes customers and regulators seek, with a strong focus on customer value and forward-looking investments. We are well-positioned to provide competitive rates for both new and existing customers over the long term as a result of our economic development success and our continued focus on cost controls. The Alliant Energy advantage is an acute focus on driving near-term growth, making smart investments to serve that growth while keeping bills low and benefiting new and existing customers. In short, being plug-and-ready enables stronger alignment between our revenue growth and capital investments. I will now turn the call over to Robert to provide our financial results, earnings and dividend guidance, financing plans, and an update on our regulatory matters.

Robert Durian, Executive Vice President and CFO, Alliant Energy: Thank you, Lisa. Good morning, everyone. Yesterday, we announced third quarter and year-to-date ongoing earnings. With third quarter ongoing earnings of $1.12 per share, we have realized over 80% of the midpoint of our 2025 earnings guidance. As shown on slide five, our ongoing earnings change year over year was primarily due to higher revenue requirements from capital investments at our Iowa and Wisconsin utilities and the positive impacts of temperatures on electric and gas sales. These positive drivers were partially offset by higher operations and maintenance expenses driven by increased generation costs from planned maintenance activities and the addition of new energy resources, as well as higher generation development costs to support long-term growth. Additionally, higher depreciation and financing expenses contributed to earnings fluctuations. Through September of this year, net temperatures positively impacted electric and gas margins by approximately 2 cents per share.

In comparison, net temperatures negatively impacted electric and gas margins for the first three quarters of 2024 by $0.10 per share. Margins from our temperature normalized electric sales have also been better than planned, with higher than expected sales to commercial and industrial customers in both states. Electric margin comparisons to last year have experienced timing differences through the first three quarters of this year as a result of the new rates implemented in Iowa in the fourth quarter of 2024. The new seasonal rates are flatter, resulting in a less pronounced increase in summer rates, which has distributed earnings more evenly throughout 2025, resulting in quarterly timing differences from last year's margins, but no material impact on full-year results.

Turning to our full-year 2025 earnings forecast, as a result of our solid earnings through September and our projected fourth quarter results assuming normal weather, we have narrowed our 2025 earnings guidance and are trending within the upper half of the $3.17 per share-$3.23 per share updated range. As Lisa mentioned, we also announced our projected 2026 earnings guidance range and dividend target. We are expecting to continue delivering an attractive total return to our investors through a combination of earnings growth and dividend yield. The 2026 earnings growth represents a 6.6% increase from our 2025 guidance midpoint, which is higher than our typical 6% forecasted growth. Our 2026 annual common stock dividend target is $2.14 per share, a 5.4% increase from 2025. We are moderating the pace of expected dividend growth to efficiently fund our increased capital expenditure plan.

We will continue to target a dividend payout range of 60%-70%, but expect to be in the lower end of the range during the period of our plan with higher investment opportunities. As shown on slides 11 and 12, we have updated the capital expenditure plan, which strengthens the diversity of our resources. We are investing in natural gas generation and energy storage projects to meet the capacity requirements of our growing customer demand. We are also making improvements in our existing fleet to enhance the capacity and energy output of those resources. We continue to invest in our renewable portfolio by adding new wind and repowering existing wind sites.

We have proactively safe harbored our energy storage and wind projects in our plan in order to preserve tax benefits for our customers, making these projects more cost-effective, providing lower fuel costs, and delivering greater affordability for our customers. With our refreshed investment plan, we now have a compound annual growth rate of 12%, a rate base plus construction work in progress, reinforcing our confidence in meeting our long-term growth objectives. Moving to our financing plans, in the third quarter, we successfully refinanced $300 million of debt issuances at IPL and issued $725 million of our first junior subordinated notes at our parent company. We plan to use the proceeds from the junior subordinated note issuance to retire maturing debt in March 2026. The equity content of this debt issuance is expected to assist us in maintaining cushion in our FFO to debt metrics to retain our current credit rating.

As we look to future financings and with the increase in our capital expenditure plan, we have provided an updated financing plan through 2029 on slide 13. Of note, our capital expenditures will primarily be financed with a combination of cash from operations, including proceeds expected from the continuation of our tax credit monetization, and new debt, hybrid, and common equity issuances to maintain authorized regulatory capital structures and a desired consolidated capital structure of approximately 40%-45% after factoring in the equity component of hybrid instruments. We have significant growth opportunities. The $2.4 billion of new common equity included in our current financing plan for 2026-2029 will primarily be used to invest in the resources needed to supply our customers' growing energy needs.

We believe the equity is manageable over the four-year planning period, and are anticipating settling the planned equity issuances ratably over that period of time. We plan to continue de-risking our planned equity issuances on a forward basis, utilizing the ATM while also being opportunistic with favorable market conditions. Of the $2.4 billion of new common equity, we have raised our planned 2026 amounts already through forward agreements. Therefore, we have only $1.6 billion of remaining equity to be raised over the next four years, excluding equity expected to be raised under our shareholder direct plan. As shown on slide 14, our 2026 debt financing plans include up to $1.1 billion of long-term debt issuances, including up to $300 million at Alliant Energy Finance or parent, up to $300 million at WPL, and up to $500 million at IPL.

Finally, I'll update you on our regulatory initiatives included on slides 16 and 17, as well as those filings planned for the future. In Wisconsin, we have four active dockets currently in progress, three of which involve requests for pre-approval of customer-focused investments. First, a request for investments to refurbish the Ford wind farm, targeting additional production tax credits from the project for the benefit of our customers. Second, a request for investments in a liquefied natural gas storage facility, our first ever, to add firm natural gas capacity. This will ensure we can reliably meet current and anticipated gas supply needs while maintaining an adequate reserve margin during Wisconsin's coldest winter days. Third, a request for investments to expand the Bentry wind farm, adding over 150 MW of new wind to provide more zero fuel-cost energy and additional tax benefits for our customers.

We are also awaiting the PSCW's decision on the individual customer rate filing for our Beaver Dam data center. In Iowa, we have three active dockets in progress. We have requested advanced ratemaking principles for up to 1 gigawatt of wind, which has the potential for customers to avoid significant fuel costs while investing in cost-effective and responsible energy resources. We requested two certificates of public convenience, use, and necessity: one for 720 megawatts of natural gas-fired simple cycle combustion turbines, which would be located in Marshall County, Iowa, and a second for a 94-megawatt natural gas rice unit in Burlington, Iowa. We expect decisions from the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin and the Iowa Utilities Commission on these dockets in 2026. Turning to our planned regulatory filings in the future, we expect to file our individual customer rate tariff for QTS Madison later this month.

In conjunction with our updated capital expenditure plan, we also expect to make future regulatory filings in both Iowa and Wisconsin for additional renewables and dispatchable resources to enhance reliability, continue to diversify our energy resources, and meet growing customer energy needs. I'll now turn the call back over to Lisa to provide closing remarks.

Lisa Barton, President and CEO, Alliant Energy: Thank you, Robert. In conclusion, we're excited about our year-to-date performance and the growth opportunities in front of us at Alliant Energy. What sets us apart? Unlocking the potential of our customers and communities is at the center of our strategy. By pursuing win-win solutions and focusing on near-term opportunities, we're driving affordability, fueling growth, and creating lasting shareholder value. Thank you for your continued support. We look forward to speaking with many of you at the EEI Financial Conference and plan to post updated materials on our website later today. At this time, I'll turn the call back over to the operator to facilitate the question-and-answer session.

Conference Operator: Thank you, Ms. Borden. At this time, the company will open up the call to questions from members of the investment community. Should you have a question, please press the star followed by the number one on your touch-tone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press the star followed by the number two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. One moment, please, for your first question. Your first question comes from Bill Apicelli with UBS. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Just a question there around the color, if you could provide it on the ramp on the demand, right, around what that could mean for the trajectory of earnings above that 7% as the load starts to come onto the system.

Lisa Barton, President and CEO, Alliant Energy: Yeah, great question. The way to think about the 7-plus is that it would be at least 7-8%. This is before upside to the plan. As a reminder, this is all known projects and so forth. One of the things to keep in mind in terms of that timeframe, we've talked about this being our desire to create cascading waves of growth. As such, timing is important. There is some lumpiness. When you think about the 50% load growth, that's really significant. Timing is something that we'll certainly be watching on a going-forward basis.

Okay. So the 12% rate-based growth, so when we just think about backing off of that, it's really the equity dilution. Is there anything else to think about when you walk that back to earnings growth?

Robert Durian, Executive Vice President and CFO, Alliant Energy: Yeah, great question, Bill. Yeah, think of the 12% as a combination of both rate-based growth plus QIP growth. So roughly about 10% rate-based growth, but also about 2% of QIP growth over that time period. Given the volume of capital expenditures we've got in our plan, the QIP balances are going to increase pretty significantly. To your specific question, as far as the walk between the 12%, the combination of those two, and what we're signaling here for at least 7-8%, yeah, most of that is related to the equity dilution. We've also got what I would characterize as a conservative set of financial assumptions when it comes to interest rates. There might be what I would characterize as some small regulatory lag, but it's pretty modest.

It's primarily the equity dilution and just kind of probably more our conservative nature with some of the interest rate assumptions.

Okay. And then just one follow-up there. Specific to Iowa, because of the uniqueness of that regulatory framework, I mean, what are the assumptions here in terms of earned returns? Is it just at your authorized across the plan? There is some optionality for you to the upside to retain some of those benefits if you can outperform, right?

That is correct, Bill. Yes. Think of the state of Iowa right now. We've got the electric side of the business that does have a new regulatory construct that was put into effect last year that does provide us a lot of certainty of our ability to be able to earn our authorized return. It does have some upside opportunity for us if we go beyond our authorized return. We share those benefits with our customers. Right now, we've just assumed that we're going to earn our authorized return. On the gas side, it doesn't have that similar construct. We will have to go in for future rate cases to be able to minimize the regulatory lag there. We'll time those based on future capital projects to ensure that we can get as close as possible to earning that authorized return.

Okay, great. All right, thank you.

Conference Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from Nicholas Campanella with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Thanks for all the updates today. Maybe just you kind of are calling out that it seems that this 7-plus is pretty conservative. You're in active negotiations for the 2-4 gigawatts of additional load. Can you just give a little bit more color on what stages of those incremental opportunities are and what your line of sight is to maybe have another kind of signed load contract in 2026?

Lisa Barton, President and CEO, Alliant Energy: Yeah. No, great question. Yeah, I'm going to go back to last year when we talked at EEI last year. We announced a gigawatt, Q1, 2.1 gigawatts. Today, we're at 3 gigawatts. We have been very focused on making sure that there are near-term opportunities, that they are less transmission dependent. We're also having a very high bar in terms of what we're sharing with you all. These are ones that we are in active negotiations on. These are ones where we have our transmission interconnection studies done and so forth. This is something to very closely watch over the next 12 months, and some of which, of course, will be sooner. We are committed, as we have in the past, to continuing to give you a very clear line of sight and to avoid speculation on all of these.

Just so I'm kind of understanding it correctly, that would then kind of put this growth rate above 8%? Is that the right way to think about it?

It would be above that, yes, above that 5-7 that we talked about. This is all great upside to our plan.

Maybe I could also just ask, thank you so much for the financing commentary. What is your FFO to debt going to be at the end of 2025? Where do you kind of see it through 2026? Also, you have $300 million of tax credits through 2026. Does that continue at that level through 2030? Just understanding if you have to eventually replace that cash flow down the line? Thank you.

Robert Durian, Executive Vice President and CFO, Alliant Energy: Yeah, great questions, Nick. Yeah, if you think about our FFO to debt metrics throughout the planning period, we're really targeting to try and have roughly about 50-100 basis points of cushion. Really, that's going to let us further grow into the plan. When you think about the 2-4 gigawatts that Lisa indicated, we want to make sure we've got strong balance sheets to be able to grow into that at even higher levels than we've got kind of currently indicated with the 7-8% plus. As we think about, yeah, tax credits, there's roughly about, I want to say, $1.5-$1.6 billion in the plan over the next four years.

We've had a lot of strong interest from counterparties to be able to buy those credits and have a lot of confidence in being able to execute those as far as generating the credits and then turning those into cash. I feel really good about the plan with all of those aspects.

One more, if I could, just the 12% load growth CAGR is large. I understand the timing of how you get above the 7% plus could also be related to just the load ramping. Just what's the starting point that's embedded in '26 so we have a base to work off of?

It's actually pretty modest in 2026. We do start to see some of the data centers taking more of what we call production load instead of construction load in the second half, mainly in the fourth quarter of 2026. You will see that continue to ramp through 2020, or sorry, 2030 is when we expect to be at that full level of the 3 gigawatts of max contract demand that we have in our plan right now.

All right. Looking forward to seeing you guys soon. Thank you.

Lisa Barton, President and CEO, Alliant Energy: Thank you.

Conference Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from Julien Dumoulin-Smith with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Just a follow-up on the 2-4 gigs in the pipeline here. Previously, you identified something like 1.5 gigawatts of mature opportunities with a high probability of conversion, maybe 85%. Taking out QTS Madison, there's something like 600-800 megawatts theoretically still in that bucket, perhaps more. How would you characterize the probability of conversion over time for the remaining 3-3.5 gigs there? Maybe how fragmented is this pipeline? Is the demand dispersed across Iowa and Wisconsin evenly? Just any commentary you have there, thanks.

Lisa Barton, President and CEO, Alliant Energy: Yeah, I appreciate that. Everything that we had in the 1.5, I'll call it the blue zone from previous decks, means still an incredibly high level of confidence in that. Quite frankly, we've got a high level of confidence in all of this. Think about this is how I think about it. You look at Iowa. We serve 75% of the communities in Iowa. We serve 40% of the communities in Wisconsin. If you're a data center, what do you need? You need fiber, you need land, you need transmission, you need a utility that's willing to work with you and that is well-positioned to be able to deliver on its commitments. That's where I think when you think about the Alliant Energy advantage where we hit it out of the park. We are in rural Iowa and rural Wisconsin surrounded by transmission.

We've been focusing these data centers and continue to focus the 2-4 gigawatts on those locations where they do not have to wait for a 100 mi transmission line or anything else. We are really trying to make sure that we can bring this load in sooner and faster. That gives us a lot of confidence in being able to price appropriately and why we are just so excited about our ability to unlock the potential of our customers and communities. Not only that, we are in MISO. MISO is acutely focused on making sure it has robust transmission planning, that it has an interconnection process both for new generation as well as for loads that allows us to grow at this very active pace. Last thing I will mention is we have really constructive states between Wisconsin and Iowa. Right now, Iowa is very well-positioned, as is Wisconsin.

I think you'll see more of the data centers gravitating a little bit more towards Iowa. That's just simply because we've got a lot of sites there. Remember, we've invested heavily over the years in land, and we've been able to have that as an attractive source for folks. We're confident in the fact that in both jurisdictions, the significance of this load growth is really going to be driving affordability for all customers. I think that's another key differentiator for us. That allows us to be very well-positioned from a regulatory standpoint. Regulators, as we mentioned earlier in my comments, are just a key gating item for the entire sector.

Our performance here that you've seen with the approvals of the ICRs and the approvals that you're seeing with the generation projects and the approval of the rate settlement, the unanimous rate settlement, it really just tells you that we've got the wind at our back when it comes to making sure that we're aligned with what our regulators care about. That's what you have to solve for in this space.

Yeah, absolutely. No, I mean, given your execution thus far and kind of the plan you set out here, that 8% plus after 2027, it seems reasonably achievable here. I kind of want to follow up on that specifically, just as you mentioned in the slides that you have, as you integrate more load and growth into the plan, you could reassess guidance looking forward. Your current look-forward period, it coincides sort of with the end of the stay-out in Iowa. There could be some uncertainty to timing kind of as to whether you'd like to file then or how you'd like to approach the construct. How should we think about rate case timing here?

The way you're going to look at the outer years of your plans, the growth rates you're willing to commit to, knowing that you have that regulatory further out, you might have regulatory uncertainty in the forward period, just kind of bringing that together with the idea that you've got this really visible above-average growth plan that you could potentially attain with upside here. How should we think about all these factors in the outer years?

Questions. Let's start with Wisconsin. Wisconsin, we've got forward-looking test years every two years. That positions us very well to have that clean line of sight on what we need from a generation investment standpoint, really ensuring that we're able to minimize lag. As you recall, in Iowa, we did not have that. The introduction of the individual customer rate in combination with the structure that we have really allows us to make sure we're able to earn our authorized every year and be able to grow at the pace of our customers. In terms of how we're thinking of that over the period, I'm just going to point back to how successful Mid-Am has been. Over the past 10 years, they have not gone in for a rate review because of this construct.

That is why we are doubling down on our focus on making sure that we're unlocking the potential of our customers and communities. Rural Iowa, which is what we serve, that 75%, they want to grow. They want data centers. They want to grow. This allows the property base to go up as well as driving costs down for customers. We're going to continue to focus on that. Ideally, we wouldn't have to go in for another rate review. I don't know, Robert, any additional commentary you'd like to provide?

Robert Durian, Executive Vice President and CFO, Alliant Energy: Yeah, we feel confident about the future of the plan. We only went through 2029 just because that's our standard process of just adding another year to the previous year. Do not read into that that we have any concerns about beyond 2029. With all the growth that we see in front of us, we've got a really strong plan and feel like that's going to go well beyond 2029.

Understood. With the certainty you kind of have here in the construct, are you confident that there's a possibility here post 2027 into the 2028 timeframe you could be considering an 8% plus EPS guide? Is there further upside to the upside you've said here?

Lisa Barton, President and CEO, Alliant Energy: You really want to look at what's coming online from a data center standpoint. Everything is timing related. If we can get data centers to be coming online sooner, that's certainly good. We have transmission investments that both ATC and ITC are making. They're relatively minimal in the scheme of things, but a lot of that is going to be associated with timing. I think a really good indicator is what we announced with Google. Google is working with us to accelerate that load ramp. Those are all the kinds of things to be watching for. As we mentioned earlier, we're going to be very transparent. We're not going to throw a bunch of speculation at you. We're going to give you that clean line of sight. I'm hoping that will be very helpful to you all.

Absolutely. No, thank you very much and congrats, guys.

Thank you.

Conference Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from Aditya Gandhi with Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Good morning, Lisa. Just on your 7-8% plus commentary, what should we think of as the base for that 7-8%? Is that the midpoint of 2026 guidance for now? Is that a good way to think about it?

Lisa Barton, President and CEO, Alliant Energy: It is.

Okay, great. On the 2-4 gigawatts of negotiations that you're having, can you give some more color on whether these are expansions of existing facilities or customers you've contracted with, or are they new customers? How should we think about the cadence of updates going forward? Will you just update your plan in Q3 next year, or could we see an update potentially before that, like you did at Q1 of this year?

Robert Durian, Executive Vice President and CFO, Alliant Energy: Yeah, I would think of the 2-4 gigawatts as a combination of expansions of existing sites, as well as, as Lisa indicated, we have a lot of additional sites across our service territory that have transmission capabilities, land availability that we think are going to be great spots for new data centers. It is a combination of those two. When I think about the counterparty to these, these are all very high-quality hyperscalers or co-locators. That is what really gives us a lot of confidence in being able to get these to the finish line because we know they are motivated customers with a lot of financial wherewithal to be able to kind of get us to the finish line on these.

As far as the timing goes, I would say in the next 12 months, we'll probably have a lot more clarity within the 2-4 gigawatts. As Lisa indicated, every quarter, we'll give updates as far as the status of those. If we make progress within the next three to six months, we'll obviously share with you information on the quarterly call.

Great. Thank you. Just one more, if I may. Could you give us some more color on sort of the agreement that you've signed with Google to accelerate the load ramp there? Could you just remind us what the load ramp looked like earlier and what it's looking like right now as you're trying to accelerate it?

Yeah, I think of that as of the 3 gigawatts, that's about 300 megawatts in total. Yeah, they were interested in just going faster. I'll go back to my earlier comments. You'll see some of that starting coming in the second half of 2026, and then just going to ramp quicker than we originally anticipated. You'll see more load in 2027 and 2028 than we originally expected. That's built into our base model right now and included in the plan.

Understood.

Lisa Barton, President and CEO, Alliant Energy: Three of the four projects are under active construction. It's an amazing thing to watch how quickly these folks grow.

Conference Operator: Hello, Aditya.

Yes, that answers all my questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Gille, there are no further questions at this time.

Lisa Barton, President and CEO, Alliant Energy: No more questions. This concludes our call. A replay will be available on our investor websites. We thank you for your continued support of Alliant Energy and feel free to contact me with any follow-up questions.

Conference Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

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